Helene Hanff: a Life

Had to read this. Anyone who saw 84 Charing Cross Road would want to read it. Anyone who read The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street or watched the Ellery Queen mysteries on TV in the 1960's would also be familiar with Helene Hanff's work. Surprisingly, she had a connection to the Ironworks (Civil War) in Richmond that I just visited a while ago. Somehow she reminds me of Lillian Hellman the subject of the movie Julia. Both were writers in the same period, both were Jewish. If you've read Hillman and her biographies/autobiography and haven't read anything by or about Helene Hanff, you are in for a treat when you discover her writings and life. I'm still pouring over the list of books she owned when she died.

I was so excited when my husband told me this book was out. "Finally," I said to myself. What I read was a mish-mash of misspelled words, typos, improper punctuation and a serious lack of editing. My question...was Arlene really Rhoda? Or did Rhoda steal Arlene's boyfriend Tom? Did the nursing home employee get fired after giving his car keys to the stroke victim and allowing the stroke victim and Helene to go on their "Great Escape?" When Helene was supposedly homeless and lost everything, how did she manage to hold onto her beloved books and typewriter? When Helene was homeless and looked through the phone book for Arlene Wulff, why did she peruse the "M" section of the phone directory? This book is like a poorly written first draft and feels like half-truth and half-fiction. In the book Jurassic Park, when the scientists cloned the dinosaurs they used frog DNA to fill the gaps in the genetic code. I think the author of this book used fiction to fill in the huge gaps in the truths of this book. Read it? Sure. Check it out of the library, borrow from a friend. Don't waste your money, like I did.

This biography is well worth buying since the author had over 150 hours of recorded interviews with her, became a “sharing a friendly lunch every week” visitor at her apartment, plus interviewed many people who knew her. He mentions how sometimes very contradictory pictures and incidents arose, and he tried to mostly go with what Helene herself told him, unless a fact appeared egregiously wrong. He does a nice job recreating times in her life through her perspective, plus recreates fun moments of sassy dialogue that the two of them had together. The book has missing factual pieces and some typos, but not enough to make it incomprehensible or unreadable.There are dramatic moments like depictions of her near homelessness, the joys of seeing her book premiere as adapted hit plays in London and New York, and an incredibly sweet late in life adventure that I feel is worth purchasing the book for just by itself. Sadly, there will be no other biographies of her, so Stephen’s unique access to her and diligent, if sometimes flawed, account of her life is the best we will get. And if you like Helene, I’d say it’s pretty damned good.To me, it’s somewhat reminiscent of one of the two excellent published biographies of irascible actress and quintessential New Yorker, Elaine Stritch, The End of Pretend. It was written by a compassionate and dedicated late in life friend of hers who spent a lot of time with her as she regaled him about her life. That is a more personal work than the other (very good) more “official” biography about her. So think of this bio that way; it’s more personal than strictly journalistic, and because it was self-published (it appears,) with some minor flaws. But overall, definitely an excellent look into her inner world and key events in her accomplished literary life.

I looked forward to this book and while I found it an easy read I have to agree with those above who say it is sloppy, like a first draft, and the timeline is confused. Obviously the author did not have a proofreader or they either had no dictionary and no knowledge of punctuation.I would have enjoyed more conversations recorded.Even if I had read reviews of the book I would have purchased it and will indeed keep it for the family history and the photographs included.

A must read to round out the character we meet in 84 Charing Cross Rd. & The Dutchess of Bloomsbury Rd.Her biography, well done via interviews by Pastore, makes one question success, dedication, loneliness, aging in the US, friendship, illness & death. Well worth the time spent in learning about her.

I'm only a short way into this book, which I bought in spite of the negative reviews; but I already feel compelled to correct a terrible wrong to Ms. Hanff's memory. This author says that she never shared royalties with Frank Doel's wife and daughters. I knew I had read somewhere that she had, so I went to look it up, and indeed, Monica Porter, who is a British reporter who knew Ms. Hanff, says specifically that Frank Doel's daughter Sheila told her that Ms. Hanff "made sure they received a share of her royalties following Frank’s death."If the reviews are right there are probably other mistakes in the book, but this seemed like such a wrong I felt I had to set this record straight.

Only 1 star because negative stars are not allowed. Dreadful. He contradicts himself, jumps around in time, changes names of people ("Arlene" becomes "Rhoda"). There are spelling and grammatical errors, and the entire thing felt like poorly written fiction.

I have been hoping that a book would be brought out about Helene Hanff's life and now that this has come out I wish It had not.I was so dissapointed by this!I have been left wondering why this writer wrote this book at all.It was filled with contradictions and it just left me fuming and screaming EDIT!!!!!!!The only two things this book has going for it is the pictures and the list of books that were in Helene's library at the very back of the book.After reading this book I was thinking about how everyone keeps a little of themselves that they dont share with every single person they meet and if it is the case that Helene did not add every single detail of her life to her books that she wrote then I think that is called being human.I will continue to enjoy Helene's books but I very much doubt that I will read another book by this authur.

An interesting book, not particularly chronological but given the subject I’m not surp

The author warns at the beginning that you might not like this book if you like Helene Hanff's own books about her life, but what I found off-putting was that the same quote was ascribed to two different people at different places in the book and some events were left up in the air and not explained or finished off properly. Also I thought he was unnecessarily cruel right at the end.